Fore! Golfing in Bintan

I mentioned in my last post that I was given a fantastic set of golf clubs for my birthday. As part of the deal, Nic from my office had also arranged a golfing day out on Bintan the next weekend. Bintan is an Indonesian island about an hour's ferry ride out of Singapore. It has several resorts and golf courses and is very popular with Sinagporeans for short breaks and golfing days (it's much better value playing there than in Singapore, provided you are willing to travel).




We were meant to be playing with two guys from JLL, a service provider to Deutsche Bank, but after a big night out one of them slept in and missed the ferry. So there was just the three of us.

We played at the Laguna Bintan which is part of the Banyan Tree resort there. It's a very nice course and I was surprised to find that we were virtually the only people playing, even though it was a Saturday. This suited me fine, though, as I played spectactularly awfully and I needed neither an audience nor irritated golfers coming up behind us.

We had two (lady) caddies between the three of us. Nic and I shared one, called Multi. I have decided that I never want to play golf any other way! They were great. They would make club suggestions, tell you which way the green was falling and by how much (rarely getting it wrong) and I swear they can smell balls lost in the scrub!


One of the local hazards are the monkeys - they love to raid the carts whilst you are playing and steal food or whatever they can grab.

It was a great day out, even though I played like shit. Next thing to do is get some lessons .....

Omigod!! I'm 40!!

Well it's been a while since my last posting, but I guess that is probably an indication of how busy I have been lately, as you will see from my next few entries.

The big news is that I am now officially and unequivocally middle-aged. I turned 40 on 4 May. I won't carry on here about how I feel about that, but I will say that rather than dreading the event, I actually ended up looking forward to it.

I had debated with myself and others for months about what I should do to mark the occasion: Should I run away by myself to a spa to fast and detox through the magic of enema in an attempt to deny the fact and somehow wind back the clock? Should I head back to Australia and do something there? Should I keep it low-key and have a small dinner in Singapore? A night on a casino ship in international waters? Hide under the bed and hope it goes away?

I soon came to realise that in the year that I had been in Singapore I had actually built up a band of friends and colleagues with whom I really wanted to celebrate my birthday, and whom in turn really wanted to help me celebrate. And so I planned a party.

A few weeks out from the date, I tossed a number of ideas around on where to hold it, how to cater and whether or not there should be a theme. Following a clever suggestion from a friend at work, I settled on a beach party at a bar called Km8, which is on Tanjong Beach on Sentosa Island. Sentosa is "Singapore's Resort Island" and lies just of the coast of mainland Singapore (which is a pretty small island in itself!). Tanjong, like all the beaches on Sentosa, is man-made, but has a great tropical, south-east Asian feel. Km8 is a very casual, laid-back sort of bar that extends out on to the sands of the beach, has a pool and plays very cool music. It all added up to exactly the sort of venue and scene that I felt was right for the night. My birthday fell on the Friday, but so that we could enjoy a few hours of sunlight at the party, I set the date for Saturday 5 May starting at 4pm.

You can check out the Km8 website at http://www.km8.com.sg

A few weeks beforehand, I had lunch with an old friend and colleague of mine from Sydney, Michele, when she was up in Singapore for a few days. We hatched a plan that maybe she and another old friend, Annette, should come up for the party. I was thrilled a little while later to hear that they had booked and would be here for the weekend. Michele's niece, Ali, was also going to come.

For the first time ever, I took a leave day on my birthday. Annette had arrived the evening before and we spent the morning doing some shopping and having lunch before heading out to the airport to pick up Michele and Ali. We all then traipsed off to Raffles Amrita Spa where we met up with Anke and we indulged ourselves with either a 2 hour massage and facial treatment or massage and body-wrap. This was followed by a few Singapore Slings in the Long Bar at Raffles and then some chilli and black pepper crab down at Boat Quay. With all the shopping, spa-ing, slinging and crabbing it turned out to be a very enjoyable, very Singaporean birthday.

After dinner the Aussie girls headed home whilst Anke and I stayed in Boat Quay for a couple more drinks and a boogie. At BQ Bar, the DJ even played "I Will Survive" for me, which had somehow become my theme song of sorts over the previous 8 months when it had been performed on numerous occassions by different bands, supposedly in honour of my "birthday". If it had actually been my birthday on each of those occasions I would be closer to 50 now than 40! We ended up in this Indian/Arabian bar where we shared a hookah (a Turkish water-pipe). This earned me a few interesting "umms", "errs" and "oh riiight"s the next day when I told people the story: all they heard was that Anke and I had shared a "hooker"!

The day of my party and I went out shopping with the girls (they are really good at it) but back home again to get ready and to get to Km8 to be there before the guests. Well, I needn't have bothered rushing as everybody decided they would be fashionably late!

I was a bit worried for a while. but people did eventually start turning up around 5pm, by which time I had a few G&Ts under my belt. I won't bore you any longer with details of the night, except:

• there were about 60 people turn up


• the food was fantastic


• I received lots of wonderful gifts (including a set of golf clubs from my work colleagues (!!!))


• everyone drank a lot


• there was cake


• the cake was rubbed into my face


• I was thrown in the swimming pool in my undies!


• we danced a lot


• I think it was the most fabulous birthday party I've ever been to!

There are way too many photos to post on here, but you can view a slideshow of the lot if you go to http://adobe.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=17tldbsw.y8h3ny8&x=0&y=-gzyeri

It was worthwhile turning 40 for such a fantastic weekend (doesn't mean I'm looking forward to 50 just yet though!!)

One night in Bangkok

Anke had a friend coming down fom China to visit for about 10 days and so, in looking for something to do on the weekend, booked us on a one night trip to Bangkok. About a week out though, her friend slipped a disc in his back and so cancelled the trip to Singapore. Not to worry, Anke and I would still go. But then, two days out, Anke came down with a dreadful flu (awww) and so the trip was off for her as well! As it happened, a friend of ours, Craig, was heading to Bangkok that same weekend. And so I decided to go anyway and catch up with him. Very fortuitously, Craig's friend in Bangkok, Tony, is a travel agent and is also starting up a tour service and so I was to get a personalised tour!

I was on a 4.00pm flight out of Singapore and landed in Bangkok at 5.20 (BKK is one hour behind SG). Tony met me at the airport and took me into the hotel, where I freshened up and then met Craig. We went for a fantastic Korean BBQ dinner: less than 5 SGD for all the meat and vegies you care to pick out from the buffet which you then cook yourself on a little BBQ on your table.

After dinner we headed across the road to the Asia Hotel and the Calypso cabaret. It was a fantastic show - all ladyboys of course. Lots of colour, dancing and lipsynching. Didn't take my camera with me, unfortunately, so no pics of this I'm afraid. After the show Tony headed home and Craig and I proceeded on a bar crawl around Pat Pong - a few G&Ts and a couple of "lesser" drag shows, but lots of fun. Got back to the hotel around 3.30am.

Up early the next morning and had breakfast in the hotel, then Craig & Tony picked me up about 8.30am to head to the floating markets. The floating markets are about 90km out of town, so a bit of a trip. The markets were incredible - lots and lots of colour and action. I took a boat with Tony for a ride that lasted about 1 hour.

Tony and Craig

I didn't eat any of the meat!

I bought a silly hat off this woman

Snake man!

From the floating markets, we then drove back towards Bangkok and the Samphran Elephant Ground & Zoo. We had a buffet lunch there (which worked out at 50 Baht, or less then 2.50 SGD!!)

As we walked in, there was a sign: "Your photo with tigers within minute. 100 Baht". this was too good to pass up and so I jumped in. They were gorgeous.

We then went to the elephant show, where they tell a story of the elephant in Thai history.

And then we quickly raced over to the crocodile show where these two mad guys somehow manage to keep their limbs intact despite giving the crocs every chance to bite them off.

Back into the car and back towards town. Experienced some famous BKK traffic on the way, so it was a slow journey. But I was in time to go to this huge massage centre where I was luckily able to get straight in for a 1.5 hour oil massage (it's a very nice and reputable place - no happy endings!).

From the massage to the airport. The new BKK airport is huge and very nice, but I am not sure if they really got the functionality quite right. It is a long and circuitous route to get to the gate.

After I passed through immigration I wen to reach for my wallet and found it wasn't in my pocket where it should be. Of course I immediately felt sick, thinking that I may have been pickpocketed. But I rang Craig and discovered that I had left it in Tony's car, so whew! Craig brought it back to Sing with him on the Tuesday.

For a boy from Australia, there is something deliciously decadent about being able to just pop up to Bangkok for 24 hours. Thanks to Craig & Tony I was able to pack a huge amount in.

Redang, April 2007

My dear friend and travelling companion, Anke, and I had originally planned to head to the Malaysian F1 Grand Prix in Kuala Lumpur over the Easter break. Anke has a friend in German media who covers the F1 circuit and could have possibly gotten us some pretty cool access. We had arranged to have the Monday off work in anticipation of dragging ourselves home nursing hangovers from some, as I imagined at least, glamorous apres-race partying. Anyway, neither of us pursued the arrangement of this trip vigorously and as the Easter weekend loomed in front of us with no bookings made, we found ourselves weighing up the alternatives: a party weekend in KL or some sun, sand, salt, surf and spa at a beach somewhere. We opted for the beach.

We had already had a great long weekend in Phuket over Chinese New Year and were keen to try somewhere new. But as we had left it so late, the more usual getaway locations were looking booked out - Krabi, Langkawi, Bali etc.

Anke, though, did some clever internet sleuthing and discovered Redang, off the east coast of Malaysia. And we could get flights and accommodation.

We left Singapore on a 6.50am flight to KL on the Friday morning, which meant getting up at 4.00am for me. Anke, though, had a tonne of work to get through before she left and ended up staying in the office until 3.30am - what dedication! - before going home to change and pack.

The flight to KL is about an hour, then we had an hour in transit before catching an 8.50am flight to Kuala Terreganu, which is a town on the east coast. I was very impressed with KL airport - very nice, new and a very easy transition from international arrivals to domestic departures with immigration desks directly between the two.

I have never been to KL, so it was nice to get a view of the city as we flew over and I was chuffed to see the Petronas Towers out of the window. Will have to go back there soon and check it all out.

Fifty minutes to KT (as I will now call it) and then a transfer from the airport to the wharf. We had not picked up any Malaysian Ringgits and so had to do some negotiation with a bus driver to buy some from him as there was no ATM at the airport and we had to pay a national park fee before we got on the boat. I do not think the guy was too smart and he used his little calculator about 25 times trying to see if he was being ripped off - as it was it was a pretty fair deal for both of us.

It was a pretty weird looking boat and we sat inside down low in the boat in coach-like seats in air conditioned comfort. I was expecting a quick run over smooth waters, so was a bit surprised when we left the river and there was a great heaving and a THUMP-CLANG as we hit the swell of the South China Sea. I think most people on the boat were surprised as there was a fair bit of murmuring and gasping as we pushed through the waves. We turned side onto the swell and headed northwards along and out from the coast towards Redang. Evryone soon got over the initial fright of the sea and actually must have quite enjoyed the rocking and swaying because before too long, every single person in the cabin was asleep - even I dozed off for a few minutes.

The trip out took almost 2 hours. We were met at the other end by a bus which took us the short distance to the other side of the island and our resort, the Berjaya Redang. Quickly saw that there was not much else going on on the island, just a bit of a village in the middle with some houses, a school and a lot of goats. There are apparently some other resorts on the island, but I did not see them or how you would even get to them.

All up, door to door, the trip had taken 8 hours. I will not even mention that we had later found out that there are direct flights from Singapore to Redang!

After a buffet lunch whilst we waited for the rooms to be ready and then a slight mix-up with the room allocation, were were soon installed into a room overlooking the gorgeous beach that is exclusively used by the resort. I must say that it was the perfect example of what I would consider the view should be on a tropical island getaway.

Straight down to the beach for a quick swim. The bay, as I gather, is usually as smooth as glass and had been up until we arrived. But today there was a swell coming through and a bit of surf. The water was warm and it was actually very nice to swim in a bit of surf again after a year away from the waves. It soon started to rain, though, and we headed back to the room where we read for a while and booked in a spa treatment for that evening. I had a salt scrub and a facial and Anke had a massage and facial. Very nice treatment rooms and Indonesian therapists (if that is what they are called). The facial put me into a bit of a trance and we went off for a lovely Thai meal in a very relaxed state.

More beach and sunning ourselves the next morning - nothing more strenuous than that. I think that the beach is one of the nicest I have ever swum at. Beautiful clear, blue warm water. I even managed to do a bit of body-surfing.

In the afternoon we went on a snorkeling tour, stopping off at 3 places around the island, each one a bit differnt fro the other in the types of coral etc. Once again, this was definitely the best snorkeling I have ever done: crystal clear water, lots of fish, amazing coral (although it did look as if quite a lot had died off).

The snorkeling inprired me to try a dive the next day, so when we got back to teh resort I booked in for Sunday afternoon. Unfortunately, when the time came, they had cancelled the trip due to "weather conditions" which I did not buy for a minute. Not sure why it was cancelled, but it was no problem, just back to the beach and more swimming.

We ended up going to the spa on Saturday and Sunday evenings. I think we have turned into spa-whores.

Otherwise it was a lot of relaxing on the beach and eating. We did not touch an alcoholic drink all weekend! But it really is not the sort of place for partying.

We did the whole trip in reverse on the Monday, leaving the resort at 12.30pm. We had a couple of hours to kill in KT, and so wandered around the shops and things near the wharf. All a bit third worldish and we were obviously attractions as we drew many stares and smiles from people driving by.

We had left our bags with the security guys at the wharf while we wandered about. When we came back we had a bit of trouble getting a cab. In the end we only just made the flight out of KT. Back home again by 9.15pm and it was all over.

Getting Started

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said:—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away

That's Shelley, not me

Just a word of explanation: I am not trying to be a smartarse - when trying to think of a title for this blog I latched on to the title of a song by Melbourne band TISM. Digging around for where that may have come from I discovered that it's inspiration was (or must have been) in the Shelley poem above, which, whilst I am really not big on poetry, I quite like. So, the poem explains the blog title and this hopefully explains why I stuck the poem there.

What this is really about is sticking up bits of my life whilst I am living in Singapore and jaunting around Asia so that you may see what I am up to.